Pilgrim Soldier

Something that has come up a few times recently in conversation over here is the strange situation The Salvation Army finds itself in. Originally set up as a Mission we were pretty much forced into becoming a church denomination due to the reaction of the churches when we tried to direct people into the mainstream churches. I’ve thought about this quite a bit as it has a lot of implications for the way we do things and sometimes leadership at all levels gets torn between the two aspects.

Yesterday morning I was sat in a meeting when Philippians 1:3-11 was mentioned, particularly the part which says that we must “Discern what are the essentials.” As I thought about these words I started to think about these two aspects of The Salvation Army and tried to work out what the essentials are for us in terms of our mission.

When William Booth started the East London Christian Mission is was simply that, a Mission. The calling that was placed upon us then was to bring people into a saving knowledge of the grace of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There was then a duty upon the mission to identify local expressions of church that would move these new believers forward in their faith. This would enable them to not only fulfil the potential they had in God but would also benefit the group of believers that they would join so that the Body of Christ would be all it could be.

It became apparent that this wasn’t going to work because the established churches of that time did not want these new converts spoiling their nice clean churches.

Therefore The Salvation Army moved from Mission organisation to denomination.

Now if we are not only a mission organisation, but also a church then our primary calling remains the same. We are called to bring people to the point of salvation. We are still called to identify local expressions of church that will turn these new converts into devoted followers of Jesus Christ, but as a church the emphasis must be on making our corps the expression that works best, not only for the new convert but also for the community of believers that are already there and for the community outside the walls.

For me the problem is that whilst somehow we managed to straddle the divide between the two aspects of our Army, Mission and Church, we have never really managed to be fully effective at one or the other. For better or for worse these two aspects have been married in this organisation called into being by God.

We have corps that have not seen new converts for decades! We have corps where the emphasis is on expressions of music instead of worship. We have soldiers who have no integrity in their lives as they live one way in front of their comrades, and another in front of their non-Christian friends and colleagues.

I suspect that some of this due to the false individualistic attitude that seems to have seeped into christianity over the centuries, but that’s another post!
The good news is that we also have corps and outposts and other types of centre where God is moving and people are becoming devoted followers. I pray for more of these and less and less of the other!